August 8 Oakville — Restaurant in Oakville

I came here with my husband for our anniversary and my family, I almost never have issues here but the moment we walked in there was no host at the front and we had to wait for a bit. Once we were seated at our table we asked the lady the difference between the dinner menu and lunch menu and for a specific item we were looking for, she did really understand and her accent was thick and she spoke so low it was difficult to hear her and I was right on the edge of the booth, they were so slow in serving the food the restaurant wasn’t even that full, our table was full of dishes they weren’t cleaning up even though we left them on the edge of the table. It was revolting, flies everywhere to the point where our cups of water were dry like the Sahara Desert, the pitcher of water was empty for a long time. No one asked us if we wanted more and I was charged for a coke I never ordered I tried explaining to the lady she was not understanding what I was saying, I was with my family of 4, only 1 person order a drink the rest of us had water and she tried charging us for another drink! The audacity! I told her no it was one drink and she wasn’t budging. I am never coming back here again! My anniversary was ruined by this lady! I use to come here all the time now I won’t be coming back, this was one of our special spots but after today never again, they are lucky they are only getting one star from me if I could I would give negative stars or non at all!!! I’m seething, I am enraged mortified even by this server and her action towards my family and I. The only nice thing I could say was the male server who asked if we had allergies and for that I am great full as I am allergic to peanuts. August8 in Oakville I am never...

I’ve been to several August 8 locations, and unfortunately, this one was on the lower end of the spectrum.

When I arrived, there was no host at the stand. I stood waiting for a little over 5 minutes before someone finally came. I let him know I had a 1:00pm reservation for 4, but he explained that his online system was down and couldn’t check. Thankfully, the restaurant wasn’t full, so seating wasn’t an issue.

We were assigned to a server named “LJ,” but another staff member—who wasn’t LJ—ended up starting us off with drinks. Our party of four adults was seated at a very tight booth, and once food started arriving, the lack of table space quickly became a problem. I politely asked if they could hold off on bringing more dishes until we had some space, but instead they continued to deliver food. Plates ended up stacked on top of each other, and because their dishes are served on large plates with relatively small portions, we had to combine items just to make everything fit.

Throughout the meal, service was almost non-existent. Our “bottomless” drinks were left empty, and even when we flagged someone down, it took at least 10 minutes for anyone to come by. Getting a refill took even longer. In total, we spent about an hour at the restaurant and only received one refill.

When we decided to wrap up, we requested the bill through the tablet, but it still took about 15 minutes to get a server’s attention. When one finally came over, she brushed us off with a curt “yeah, one sec,” which felt unnecessarily rude.

For the price we paid, the experience was disappointing. The food itself was okay, but the service and overall dining experience need significant improvement. I would not recommend...

Normally, I limit myself to positive reviews only as experiences are subjective and YMMV. However, I feel like I must warn about choosing the "à la carte" option for dimsum. I'll spare you the details about how we ended up at an all-you-can-eat restaurant and asked for the "à la carte" menu. It was accidental and switching restaurant was not an easy option.

The dimsum items were priced at the market price of $6.50 each, which is acceptable. However, to our biggest disappointment, each item was half the size of what would be expected based on the industry standard. They were reduced sizes for the purpose of all-you-can-eat. We felt short-changed. I don't mind paying the full price, but I expect a full size. It may be hard to see from my pictures, but you can see the dumplings (har gao for example) are not of a standard shape, because it would be a technical challenge to half the size and keep it the standard shape. As a result, they flattened the dumpling. The shu-mai feels like there's too much room in the basket. The BBQ pork buns were one-biters.

The ordering system from a tablet (if I recall correctly, it was an iPad) was also a terrible user experience. The response time was slow and the app was not user friendly.

On the positive side, the sushi rolls were reasonable at $14 each, considering today's pricing. The rice and noodle dishes were decently priced also. My biggest complaint is really about the dimsum items.

If you are into quantity over quality, this place would be a good choice. If you order à la carte, just don't order dimsum items. I give it a 3-star rating because you can get good value for the all-you-can-eat, but I'm sharing a negative experience for feeling...